Have drugs fucked you up?

[scatterday]

If there is one thing that's caused a noticeable difference in my anxiety after quitting several times it would be cannabis. I smoked it heavily during adolescence and I'm a firm believer in it having the potential to do a lot of damage on a growing brain more so than other drugs.

Opinions are of course subjective but I've felt a clear difference and if I had to point the finger at something as a cause of my adult anxiety disorder it would be that.

 

[Hospitality]

I live daily with aftereffects of my use. I definitely think taking ecstasy and expending those receptors can be devastating. Anxiety and depression are two i’ve noticed.

Can you describe more of your symptoms and why you think drugs caused them?

 

[PUGinaRUG]

If there is one thing that's caused a noticeable difference in my anxiety after quitting several times it would be cannabis. I smoked it heavily during adolescence and I'm a firm believer in it having the potential to do a lot of damage on a growing brain more so than other drugs.

Opinions are of course subjective but I've felt a clear difference and if I had to point the finger at something as a cause of my adult anxiety disorder it would be that.

I've had a love hate relationship with weed all my adult life. I'm prescribed 300mg pregabalin x2 per day now... So vaping some weed doesnt ever prang me out like it used to. I'm back vaping 2 bowls each evening, which isn't much at all. If I did it during the day or morning I'd be brain dead all day and probably a fat git to boot. Definitely have a handle on my usage now which is good. I eat dinner, then have a vape. Because I'm full I dont really get the munchies. If I do I dont give in to it.

Just 6 weeks ago I was eating loads of junk, put on weight etc because I had just rediscovered the dark web and drugs after a 5-6 year break. So I went a bit mad at first.

In the past I've had a panic attack in front of my mum and dad just from weed. This was when I was 17/18. So its certainly not a harmless drug.

 

[Hospitality]

Just because other people have worse problems, does not negate his problems. By your logic, only the person with the absolutely agreed upon, worst problems can ask for information on how they feel. We all feel sad / shit / down / worried sometimes, nothing wrong with or asking for help / information. Especially on a drug board aimed at people from your country / continent who may have experienced the same or have information.

Thanks for this, it’s a well worded version of what I wanted to say, but was concerned others shared his view here. I’m so pleased to see this place in general is full of decent folk and not hostile tossers like him!

 

[Hospitality]

When did you stop that usage? For how long were you doing 10+ pills for and how often?

I stopped around 2008 but I’ve had some smaller seshes since then. I’m afraid I’m my own worst enemy because I didn’t stop when the problems started. Well, I did, but despair drive me back.

I guess I was doing pills for around 5 years or so and did 10+ about 10 times and once did 20. I reckon I’ve done about 1000 in total. I’ve also cained coke quite a bit and done some mephedrone.

 

[TargetX]

I take a hardcore Libertarian view on "drugs" which I'll not go over again as people understand by now & anyone with any logic will agree with me.
If you really think eating some MDMA will fuck you up my friend you really need to learn, look at people in Russia hooked & falling to pieces due to addiction to bathtub cooked Desomorphine, Sisa smokers in Greece, people that have never fully come back from eating Datura etc etc............


And if that is the case who put a gun to your head & made you take them I wonder? Oh that's right nobody did & you took it upon yourself to do it so who is to blame?.......YOU are!!!

I suggest you quit moaning with your first world problems & learn about people with real issues related to drugs..............oh maybe start with people in Mexico that are crying over missing family members or the amount of corpses dumped at the side of the road cut into pieces via a chainsaw for a basic start.

You been on a crack bender again?

Just because some other drugs can objectively be more damaging, whether that be physically or psychologically, doesn't negate the damage that continued, high dose MDMA can do, and that doesn't negate the profound damage a single high dose of MDMA can do either. There have been about a dozen deaths of under 16's from a single high dose of MDMA. Is the suffering of their families somehow diminished because some krokodil users had much worse addictions and deaths? Fundimentally yes the person who takes drugs and develops a problem is to blame, but the OP wasn't denying that. He was admitting to suffering problems after abusing MDMA, he wasn't looking for a lecture on how other people have it worse so suck it up, and I don't see how that is in any way helpful, in fact, the only thing I see is you ripping on someone looking for advice and trying to get people to talk about shit you think is important. That's a pretty low thing to do.

If you have something tangible to contribute to this thread do so, if you don't, then don't. For someone who went off on someone for "liking" their post about how sick they were and saying how you would never make fun of or diminish someone who was suffering the side effects of withdrawal, your reaction to this poster describing side effects of drug use is pretty hypocritical

 

[PUGinaRUG]

Its possible drugs have fucked me up. I have ibs (bloating, constipation) and food sensitivities. I'm positive my gut microbiome is fucked. It causes me brain fog/headaches and anxiety and difficulty concentrating (I already have this due to ADHD so it exacerbates it) What's worse is a lot of GPs dont have the training to understand the mechanism of how the cognitive issues could arise from ibs. They say it's all in my head. It's my mental health issues, or side effects from all the medications I'm prescribed.

The currently held view is the blood brain barrier means it's not possible for problems in the body to effect the brain. The mind and body are considered separate. Newer research is showing it's possible though. 'The inflamed mind' is a great book that explains how inflammation in the body (whether in the gut, joints as in arthritis, or anywhere else...can cause inflammatory cytokines which can cross the blood brain barrier and cause anxiety, depression etc.
Its wrote by this guy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bullmore

Pretty good credentials if you ask me.

I will never know if chronic codeine usage caused this (stopping my intestine contractions, causing constipation, causing shit which the body wants eliminated to linger/fester in my gut. I could have easily perma messed up my guts ability to contract and expell waste. Apparently this can cause small bacterial overgrowth and a leaky gut/food intolerances. You shouldn't have bacteria in the small intestine, only the large intestine. If bacteria invade the small intestine they can colonize and wreak havoc. Destroying the walls of the intestine, making them leaky and letting large proteins through, when they shouldn't be able to, such as gluten, yeast, any food proteins really. Broken down proteins into amino acids: good. Fully formed proteins: bad. Your immune system can then view these proteins as invaders and attack them, causing chronic inflammation and sensitivities to those food types. I can't eat gluten any more without an intense headache and anxiety a few hours later for example. No I'm not a coeliac. I've been tested twice, the most recent just 6 weeks ago.

Or maybe other drugs such as gbl, loads of booze with sulphates (cheap cider) periods of mdpv abuse, hardly eating at all. Periods of being stoned and having the munchies then eating loads and loads of crap junk food. Chocolate, takeaways, cookies, icecream etc. Literally stuffing myself silly sometimes till I felt ill. My weight was fluctuating all the time back in the day, depending on if I had stims or weed/gbl/booze.

I cant know for sure drugs caused all this but I have my suspicions... Considering all the inconsistencies I threw at my gut, I would hardly have a healthy microbiome, surely? Microbiome is term used for the assortment of good/friendly bacteria in the gut. They have a huge role in food digestion and then creation of certain chemicals the body needs...short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate

My health right now is pretty bad due to all this. I had a period of 5-6 years clean from drugs recently. These problems started about 3 years ago. Could be a delayed reaction. Opiates can train your gut not to work as efficiently even after stopping. The natural contractions of the migrating motor complex (mmc) normally flush out bacteria in small intestine that shouldn't be there. I hypothesise I may have a faulty mmc that started all my ibs symptoms.

I have to take laxatives daily now, but at least I can take a shit. Sadly the bloating and other cognitive symptoms remain.

 

[OrbitalCombustion]

Can you describe more of your symptoms and why you think drugs caused them?

I was young and lured into the world of empathogens, tryptamines and a varied assortment of psychedelics. I was dropping XTC along with LSD and psilocybin almost on a weekly basis for months at a time. This added to my depression, I developed an anxiety disorder and was prescribed Xanax. All the drug use compounded into several issues - inability to feel pleasure (anhedonia), debilitating depression and catatonia, desire to wash my blues away with more drugs, eventual rampant narcotics addiction.

 

[Hospitality]

I was young and lured into the world of empathogens, tryptamines and a varied assortment of psychedelics. I was dropping XTC along with LSD and psilocybin almost on a weekly basis for months at a time. This added to my depression, I developed an anxiety disorder and was prescribed Xanax. All the drug use compounded into several issues - inability to feel pleasure (anhedonia), debilitating depression and catatonia, desire to wash my blues away with more drugs, eventual rampant narcotics addiction.

How are things now? Have you improved at all? I think I have anhedonia too. Sometimes though I think my mind is just so noisy I can’t enjoy the moment.

 

[OrbitalCombustion]

How are things now? Have you improved at all? I think I have anhedonia too. Sometimes though I think my mind is just so noisy I can’t enjoy the moment.

Im in a different boat, Ive had a more involved compound effect from abusing stimulants, opiates and legal highs. It has only developed into a more severe depression, among other mental health issues. So for me personally, no it has not been ameliorated by discontinued use.

I recommend looking at brain studies of heavy users of MDMA. You will see brain damage.

 

[Hospitality]

Im in a different boat, Ive had a more involved compound effect from abusing stimulants, opiates and legal highs. It has only developed into a more severe depression, among other mental health issues. So for me personally, no it has not been ameliorated by discontinued use.

I recommend looking at brain studies of heavy users of MDMA. You will see brain damage.

Sorry to hear that.

OK so not much positive for me to take from this thread, looks like I’m stuck with this horrible feeling for the rest of my life

 

[OrbitalCombustion]

How are things now? Have you improved at all? I think I have anhedonia too. Sometimes though I think my mind is just so noisy I can’t enjoy the moment.

Sorry to hear that.

OK so not much positive for me to take from this thread, looks like I’m stuck with this horrible feeling for the rest of my life

Thats not true at all. You need healthy lifestyle habits, it will help tremendously. Like I said my prison is not yours.

 

[Hospitality]

Thats not true at all. You need healthy lifestyle habits, it will help tremendously. Like I said my prison is not yours.

Thanks, yeah, but if it’s brain damage it’s hard to imagine whats really going to change that. I’ve had this so long now too.

 

[OrbitalCombustion]

Thanks, yeah, but if it’s brain damage it’s hard to imagine whats really going to change that. I’ve had this so long now too.

I feel you. Its bad rap but the price we paid for the inexplicable moments in the MDMA lair.

 

[Arnold]

It will go away, it might take more than a few years till you're back to normal.
Till then stay clear of mdma.

At least it ain't the 'Ive only taken one pill ever and I'm brain damaged'...

 

[Wilson Wilson]

I'm surprised this thread caused so much drama. I thought it was pretty well accepted that abuse of MDMA can in fact cause neurotoxicity and as it fucks with your serotonin, depression and anxiety are expected effects of this.

That doesn't mean MDMA is evil or worse than krokadil or whatever. But simply everything in moderation is a good rule especially where drugs are involved.

There have been systematic reviews done of heavy MDMA users from the 90's and effects like OP describes is common. The kind of people who bosh pills like sweets frequently are likely to do some type of damage unfortunately.

It will get less serious over time, but in the most severe cases the symptoms don't seem to fully disappear.

OP can try nootropics to see if they have any real effect especially regarding concentration, it is possible they could help.

But as has also been pointed out... it is also entirely possible that the people this happens to were already depressed in the first place and this is what lead to heavy drug use to begin with. It is truly impossible to know whether if this was the case and if the symptoms would have gotten worse without the heavy MDMA use.

 

[Blowmonkey]

What about fags, imagine being fucked by them. I'm absolutely black on the inside.

 

[Hospitality]

What about fags, imagine being fucked by them. I'm absolutely black on the inside.

They definitely aren’t good for your health, but I think you can recover largely if you stop and they don’t really affect your mental health a great deal?

 

[Hospitality]

I'm surprised this thread caused so much drama. I thought it was pretty well accepted that abuse of MDMA can in fact cause neurotoxicity and as it fucks with your serotonin, depression and anxiety are expected effects of this.

That doesn't mean MDMA is evil or worse than krokadil or whatever. But simply everything in moderation is a good rule especially where drugs are involved.

There have been systematic reviews done of heavy MDMA users from the 90's and effects like OP describes is common. The kind of people who bosh pills like sweets frequently are likely to do some type of damage unfortunately.

It will get less serious over time, but in the most severe cases the symptoms don't seem to fully disappear.

OP can try nootropics to see if they have any real effect especially regarding concentration, it is possible they could help.

But as has also been pointed out... it is also entirely possible that the people this happens to were already depressed in the first place and this is what lead to heavy drug use to begin with. It is truly impossible to know whether if this was the case and if the symptoms would have gotten worse without the heavy MDMA use.

Wish there was a way I could reverse it. I’ll look into nootropics, cheers.

 

[Hospitality]

So does anything think it’s really possible to be truly happy again once you’ve done this to your brain? I mean like I say I’ve taken a shit load of MDMA, which I massively regret but I accept it was my decision and I have to live with the consequences. Still, it would be nice to think there’s so hope for happiness.